


Fear

by SoDoRoses (FairyChess)



Series: LAOFT Extras [63]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Mentioned bullying, Morality | Patton Sanders-centric, POV Original Character, POV Outsider, parenting is hard and its even harder when ur kid is magic, the Wallers perform admirably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 16:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20428610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/pseuds/SoDoRoses
Summary: Over the course of his life, Patton brings home friends.Some go over better than others.





	Fear

**Author's Note:**

> for these prompts:
> 
> “could we get some more stuff with Pat’s parents? Especially their reaction to everything that has and will go down! (i know they’re not as prevalent as May, Dot, Larry, or Eirwen for plot-relevancy reasons, butttttt, they seem badass in their own way, y'know?)”
> 
> “How do Patton’s parents react to him being around White/White being around them? It’s gotta be pretty awkward between the adults.”
> 
> both from anons, and 
> 
> “i’d love to know more about patton’s parents and their relationship with each other/him/his boyfriends!” from [@airiervessel](airiervessel.tumblr.com)
> 
> and
> 
> “LAOFT prompt: a missing scene i’d like to see: when did Patton have the conversation with Virgil that he would like to go with him to fairyland?” from [@trivia-goddess](trivia-goddess.tumblr.com)
> 
> all on tumblr.
> 
> in the first scene Patton calls them “tetrises” but he’s talking about Logan’s Ember Tetras. Hes just really fucking cute

“_Momma-momma-momma-momma!”_

“Woah, woah, woah!” said Shelley, taking the pan off the heat and killing the burner immediately.

“Patty, what on earth-”

“_Momma_!” he wheezed, barreling into the kitchen so gracelessly it was a wonder he didn’t face plant. He put his hands on his knees, breathing heavy.

“_Honey,_ you’ve gotta be more careful,” she said, hurriedly wiping her hands on a dishcloth, “Where’s your inhaler?”

Patton fished around in his pocket. His breath was ragged, and he was still half-bent over, but-

But.

He was _beaming._

Patton brought his inhaler up without any direction from her. It was a good thing he’d been doing it for years, because Shelley wasn’t totally sure she could speak, just then.

Patton was perfect, as far as Shelley was concerned. The curse didn’t change that.

And cheerful, too – always was.

Or maybe not. Because Shelley’s son smiled all the time – but he’d never smiled like this. Or if he had, it had been so long Shelley had forgotten the shape of it, a thought that made her hands start to shake.

“What happened, honey?” she said, running her hand across his gold curls.

Patton sent that wide and ecstatic smile back up her way, and Shelley tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

“Momma, I made a _friend!_” he said, breathless. She couldn’t tell if it was the asthma or not.

“You did?” she said, and only managed to make herself sound interested and not confused at the last second. Her stomach turned, but if her face showed her nerves Patton didn’t notice.

“It’s Logan Sanders!” he said, nodding enthusiastically

“Really?”

If she’d been confused before, it was nothing compared to now – she’d never met the Sanders changeling child, or even seen him up close, but she was given to understand he didn’t really get along with the other children.

Then again, everybody acted like _Patton_ didn’t get along with the other children, when Patton could get along with just about anybody who didn’t run away.

A shame they all ran away.

So maybe she ought to reserve judgment.

“And how did you make friends?”

Patton immediately looked guilty.

For one single, heart-stopping moment, Shelley thought Patton was going to tell her he’d compelled Logan to be his friend, and Shelley grabbed the thought and crammed it back as far down her throat as she could manage.

“Chad Pennybacker and his friends were picking on him,” said Patton, “And you know he- he still can’t touch me,”

She did, in fact, know about the compulsion Patton had placed on Chad several years ago and never figured out how to lift. Chad’s parents complained about it just about every time she saw them, and they never seemed too keen on Shelley’s cool assertion that Chad shouldn’t be even trying to lay a hand on her son anyway.

“So I just kinda- got between ‘em,” said Patton, “Chad _hit_ him, Momma, his nose was bleeding and everything!”

“I- honey, that was very brave of you,” she said, “But you said Chad was with his friends, didn’t you? They could have hurt you,”

“…Oh,” said Patton, scrunching his face up, “I guess- I guess I didn’t think about that,”

His face fell.

“Well, I- I’m glad they didn’t,” Shelley reassured him, “Logan, he was- he was grateful, then? And that’s how you made friends?”

Patton shuffled his feet awkwardly.

“Well- uh, sort of,”

“… What do you mean, sort of?”

Patton curled his shoulders forward.

“Chad said something really mean,” he blurted, “And Logan got _really _mad, and he kinda lunged and- and I panicked ‘cuz I thought if Logan _really_ hurt him you know Logan would be the one who got in trouble because Chad freaking Pennybacker-”

“_Language,_”

“-never gets in trouble for _anything_, even though Chad totally started it-”

“Patton-”

“And it just kinda slipped out-”

“_What slipped out?_”

Patton shook his head, the smile returning.

“That’s the thing!” he said excitedly, “It slipped out and I _told_ Logan to wait but he _didn’t!_ Momma, nothing happened at all!”

“… Nothing?” she said faintly.

Patton shook his head. His grin hadn’t faltered again, and his eyes looked a little shiny.

“I can’t hurt him,” he said, “Because he’s magic, too, we’re- we’re the same,”

He sniffed, scrubbing at his face.

“I can’t hurt him,” he repeated, his voice wavering.

Shelley’s chest ached, and she crossed the kitchen, kneeling in front of Patton and wrapping her arms around his shaking shoulders, as he buried his round little face in her shirt and started to cry.

She let him, rocking them a little as he let out what must have been years of bitten back tears. Finally, he settled, and Shelley puled back to cradle his face in her hands.

“Hey,” she said, “Why don’t you invite your new friend over for a sleepover? You can watch movies and play board games, and- I’ll even let you eat a bunch of junk food,”

Patton giggled.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Can you buy goldfish crackers?”

Shelley tilted her head.

“Well, sure, but why?”

Patton grinned.

“He’s got little goldfish, he showed me! Well, they’re fish that are gold, but they’re not goldfish he said. They’re called tetrises, like the video game. He’s really smart, Momma ,he knows so many things about fish!”

“That’s so interesting,” said Shelley, “Why don’t you tell me all about him,”

“He has pretty eyes, and-”

Shelley startled a little at the first statement, giving Patton an odd look, but he didn’t seem to notice – he just kept right on going, chattering away about his new friend and…

And blushing.

Well. There was that then.

* * *

Matt didn’t exactly have a whole lot of friends.

Which was just fine by him – he wasn’t interested in being friends with people who acted like his son had the plague for something entirely out of his control. No _thank you_.

Dot and Larry were pretty much it, and though it was a little embarrassing to make friends with the parent’s of his _son’s_ friend, rather than the other way around, sometimes you really did need to just pass out glasses of whiskey and complain about the whole town of backwards idiots you were trapped with.

So Matt didn’t get out much, basically.

None of them did, really – just the farmer’s market on Saturdays, and nobody stopped to chit-chat. They bought their cheese and their milk, and they gave him terse thank yous, and they left. The kids running around didn’t even do that much.

“Hey, Mr. Waller, it’s nice to meet you!”

Matt froze, totally confused for a good three seconds, and turned.

The brown-haired kid in front of him was leaning on the table, grinning with eyes so green they were honestly a little unsettling, and just barely familiar.

“Roman!”

Patton scrambled out of his chair behind Matt, ducking down and crawling under the tables before popping up on the other side and throwing his arms around the other boy.

“Oh,” he said, “This is Roman?”

And then Matt realized why he seemed familiar. Matt had never actually met her, but just about nobody in Wickhills didn’t know what May Gage looked like.

“That’s me!” he said, and he didn’t seem to have any intention of releasing Patton.

“Well, it is nice to meet you then, kiddo,”

And it was, mostly.

Matt had never been so grateful as when Patton had made friends with Logan, and _more_ friends for Patton were always gonna be a good thing in his book.

But _this_ – this was different.

Because Patton had already come home miserable once, having accidentally compelled Roman and sure he’d ruined his new friendship and Logan’s before it had even really started.

But Roman hadn’t run, and Matt had breathed the biggest sigh of relief in his life.

But he might still. Matt couldn’t know for sure. And if one hiccup had hurt Patton that much, he couldn’t imagine what would happen if it actually fell apart.

Roman was chattering away, saying his grandmother was wondering if they might want to trade some things, apples or eggs or some of her fresh herbs for their cheese, and he _still _hadn’t let go of Patton. It was honestly getting a little odd.

He’d set his head on top of Patton’s, arms looped around his shoulders and rocking them. Patton had closed his eyes, his head pillowed on Roman’s shoulder and a soft smile on his face.

Roman kept talking as he rubbed an affectionate cheek to Patton’s hair and _oh._ Okay.

Matt looked between them.

Alright. Yeah, that- that made sense. He could work with that.

Roman took a scrap of paper with the home and Matt’s cell numbers, gave Patton one last squeeze, and ran nearly backwards into the crowd. He was still shouting back at them even as he disappeared into the throng.

“He seems real friendly,” said Matt.

“Oh, he is!” said Patton, “And he gives _really_ good hugs,”

“I saw that,” said Matt, amused.

Patton didn’t seem to notice the teasing, going back to his notebook with a pleased, content expression.

Yeah. They could definitely work with that.

* * *

Shelley was not freaking out.

Which was a blatant, hysterical lie, but if Shelley didn’t keep saying it in her head on repeat she was definitely going to have a heart attack.

Patton had shot them a text just after dawn, assuring them he’d explain everything when he got home, and that he was fine. Radio silence after, and then one more saying they were going to hospital around the same time a breathlessly relieved Dot had called to say Thomas had woken up.

And then Patton had come home.

And he’d brought that _absolutely petrifying fae _with him.

To be fair, he seemed much less petrifying now. Unsettlingly quiet, and with a tendency to… _stare_, but not hostile, like he’d been back at Dot and Larry’s.

Small victories.

He’d sat silent through the other three’s halting and… suspiciously vague explanation of the death of the Serpent King, and the passing on of the monster (ghost?) and introduced himself as Verge when they finished.

And that Patton had further introduced him as the Spider Prince, Lord of the Forest, and that was about when Shelley started to feel like she needed a drink.

And then Patton had pulled the two of them aside, the prince in tow, and begun to speak.

“I think…”

He let out a shaky breath, and the prince reached out and brushed the backs of his fingers on Patton’s cheek like his parents weren’t even there.

“Verge has to go back to fairyland,” said Patton, “To- to keep all the Unseelie under control,”

“Yes,” the prince confirmed.

“And… you said you could help me learn to control my voice,”

The prince gave Patton a strange look, glancing between him and Shelley and Matt. Shelley suddenly felt a little lightheaded.

“… Yes, I did,” he said finally.

Patton took a deep breath.

“So, I think I should go with you,”

“Absolutely not,” said Matt immediately. Shelley couldn’t even speak.

“Pop,” said Patton, tired.

“Have you lost your mind?” said Matt, “You want to- that’s insane!”

“The thing is-”

Patton squeezed his eyes shut, pained.

“The thing is,” he said thickly, “I’m eighteen, and I- and I’m not actually asking _you_,”

Matt gaped.

Patton turned to the prince, looking up expectantly.

The prince frowned a little. He looked again at the two of them, and then slowly nodded.

“I’ll take you,” he said, which made the whole bottom drop out of Shelley’s stomach.

He turned then, facing her directly.

“I will bring him back if he asks,” he said firmly, “And I won’t let anyone hurt him,”

Shelley’s terror turned a little more confused. She’d never heard a Good Neighbor speak quite so plainly.

She didn’t really know what she said after that. Some kind of weak, helpless agreement, because Patton was right, they couldn’t really stop him. They certainly couldn’t stop the _Spider Prince_.

And then they went to rejoin Roman and Logan, and as they walked away Patton reached out and… took the prince by the hand?

Wait.

“What?” said Matt, sounding just as confused as Shelley felt.

The prince smiled down at Patton, a faint blush across his cheeks and _huh._

“I- I could have sworn he liked Logan?” she said, baffled.

“What? No,” said Matt, casting her an incredulous look, “He likes Roman,”

They stared at each other.

They turned back to the four of them. Patton and Verge were still holding hands, and Roman had wrapped his arms around Patton from behind, and Logan was leaning firmly on Verge’s other side.

“Oh,” said Shelley.

“Can- can they do that?” said Matt.

Shelley cocked her head.

“Well… I mean, they all seem to be on the same page, looks like, so… I guess I don’t see why not?”

They went quiet.

“You know,” said Matt, “I feel like I oughtta be more surprised,”

The stress of the past day and the absurdity of this conversation finally caught up to her, and Shelley started losing it giggling.

Matt started laughing too, and they caught Patton’s attention. He turned and waved at them, and around him all three of the other boys watched him with besotted expressions.

Well. There were worse things.

* * *

Matt could admit the sigh of relief he let out every time Patton returned from fairyland was probably audible three counties over.

He was so relieved he wasn’t even bothered that Patton had almost always clearly gone to his boyfriends first. He arrived this time with all three of them in tow, not quite disheveled but with that air that he _had _been and then fixed it – Matt had been a teenager once, he knew how these things worked – and now that Matt had a better idea of what was going on, Verge looked a lot less intimidating. It was a bit hard to be spooked by what was clearly a hopelessly smitten teenage boy, Good Neighbor or no.

This time, Matt decided the only appropriate response was to make french toast. Yeah, it was three in the afternoon, but it was a weekend and brunch was a thing and so was breakfast for dinner so – there.

Turned out Verge was just as big a fan of maple syrup as Logan was, which probably shouldn’t have surprised Matt as much as it did.

He did get a little tense when someone knocked at the door, and Shelley looked equally alarmed. One, because they were knocking on the _back_ door, which was weird by itself – Matt could just barely see them moving through the gaps in the blinds of the sliding glass door.

And two, because he was gonna have to figure out how to turn them away without revealing the fact that he had the Lord of the Forest dipping french toast sticks in powdered sugar in his kitchen.

He crossed the room, angling himself so Verge was behind him, and pulled the blinds back.

Blank white eyes stared back at him.

Matt made a strangled noise and dropped the blind, stepping back.

“Pop? What’s wrong?”

Matt was pretty sure he’d up and lost his vocal chords, so he just shook his head, panicked.

He blinked, and Verge was standing right in front of him, pulling back the blind to look for himself before Matt could even think about stopping him.

“Oh,” said Verge, unconcerned, “Patton, your godmother is here,”

“Shit,” said Patton, his voice flat but not even remotely scared.

And then _he_ crossed the room, pulling the blind all the way and revealing the pale, towering creature behind it, unlocked the door, and _let it in the house_.

The fae woman ducked, too tall to pass through the door.

“Hello, Matty,” she said, “Hello, Michelle,”

Matt didn’t have a damn clue what kinda sound he made just then, but it definitely wasn’t hello. She didn’t seem bothered.

“You forgot your library book, dear Patton,” she said, holding it out.

Matt’s whirring, panicking thoughts all screeched to a halt.

“Oh- sorry, ma’am,” Patton said sheepishly.

“I am unconcerned,” she said, “But I know it distresses you when you incur fines,”

She turned to Matt, then, her expression utterly flat.

“I could enchant the book so he could not be penalized, but he protests when I offer. It is amusing,”

And then she went quiet.

After a long pause, Matt realized she meant for him to _respond._

“The, uh-” he fumbled, “It’s- it’s meant to- keeping track of it, it teaches- teaches him, uh. Responsibility,”

She seemed pleased.

“I can respect this method of teaching,”

She turned back to Patton, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. Patton didn’t flinch, and even _leaned into it_.

“I will see you tomorrow for your lessons, sweet Patton,” she said, “Goodbye. Goodbye, Matty, Michelle,”

Matt blinked, and she was gone.

The silence hung.

“… _Lessons?”_ said Matt lowly.

“You told us _you_ were teaching Patton to control his voice,” said Shelley, glaring at Verge.

Verge winced, shuffling awkwardly and looking completely indistinguishable from every adolescent who’d ever know damn well they were about to get grounded till they were dead.

“Technically,” he said, sheepish, “I told you I, uh. _Could_ teach him. Not… that I _was,_”

“Don’t be mad at him!” said Patton, “It was my fault, I knew you’d freak out if you knew it was White teaching me-”

“‘White’?” said Shelley incredulously.

Patton nodded.

“That’s what she’s called,”

“Patty, kiddo…” said Matt, ragged, “This… this is something else,”

Patton frowned, looking away.

“She’s nice,” he said weakly.

“Nice,” said Shelley, flat, “Nice, you say, after what she did to you-”

“It wasn’t her _fault, _she wanted to come back but the Serpent King wouldn’t let her!” said Patton desperately.

He turned back to Matt.

“I told her- I told her she spooked you,” he said, pleading, “And that she should take it easy, but she must have thought the book was a good excuse to come and-”

“What are you talking about?” said Matt.

“She _loves _us!” insisted Patton.

Matt gaped.

“She really does,” said Patton thickly, “I- _Pop_, she talks about you _all the time_,”

“She does _what now?_”

“About the fox trap!” said Patton, “About how brave you were, that she could see you were scared but you got her out anyway, and how kind you are. She says you’re her best friend,”

“That is _not_ how that works,” said Matt, strangled.

Patton just stared, pleading.

Matt groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Patton was a kid who’d come with quite a few curve-balls. The curse, to start, and then bringing home a changeling for a best friend, and then three boyfriends, one of who had more magic in his pinkie finger than any ten Good Neighbors.

Matt sighed.

What was one more?

“Alright,” he said, scrubbing his face.

“_Alright?_” said Shelley incredulously.

Matt threw his hands up, gesturing at Patton.

“Shelley,” he said, laughing a little, “Patty’s just about the best judge of character I’ve ever met,”

Shelley looked like she’d eaten a lemon, looking between Matt’s resigned expression and Patton’s imploring eyes.

She sighed.

“Well,” she said, “I suppose we’re inviting your godmother over for dinner. What does she eat?”

Patton nearly shrieked with delight, diving to give Matt a hug and then rushing around the counter to do the same for Shelley, babbling excitedly about White and her likes and dislikes and gleeful ‘thank you’s scattered all throughout.

_Alright_, Matt thought,_We can__ work with that._

**Author's Note:**

> you can also find me at [@tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors](tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors.tumblr.com) over on tumblr!


End file.
